Lil Wayne’s ‘Tha Carter V’ album arrives — four years late

Lil Wayne has released the fifth instalment in the Wayne series, ‘Tha Carter V’ after first announcing it in 2012.

The rapper released the album at midnight on Thursday; five days after its pre-announced Friday, September 21 release date.

The 23-track album features Nicki Minaj, Ashanti, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and recently deceased XXXTentacion.

Some of the producers that worked on the album were Swizz Beatz, Metro Boomin, Mannie Fresh, Zaytoven, DJ Mustard, Dr. Dre.

The album was supposed to be released in 2014 with ‘Believe Me’, a Drake-feature as the lead single.

Days before the 2014 release, Wayne had tweeted that Brian ‘Birdman’ Williams, Cash Money label boss, had “refused to release the album”.

“I am a prisoner and so is my creativity. I am truly sorry and I don’t blame ya if ya fed up with waiting 4 me & this album,” he tweeted at the time.

In an appreciation video on Youtube, he said: “Message to the world, to all my fans, my supporters, I heard there was a little misunderstanding about the release date of Tha CV, I heard Y’all got a little mixed up and Y’all thought it was being released last week or something.

“Since Y’all stuck with me and hung in there any way for like the past four or five years, Y’all got me feeling like Tiger Woods with this comeback but on my birthday, I actually have something special, I will be releasing Tha Carter V on my birthday.

“Like I said, Y’all hung in there with me for like 30 million years I can’t do anything but thank you all for all the love and the passion and every ounce of anything I have left in my heart, it goes to Y’all.

“This album is giving more than me, I hope Y’all remember that. This is four, five, six years of work that you’ll be listening to and I hope you enjoy it.”

The album is coming seven years after the fourth instalment ‘Tha Carter IV’.